This session was my first time exploring Phon D Sutton. I can always count on Stacey to come up with a great location idea, great outfits, and great attitudes for their family pictures! I am so happy they have me take their pictures several times a year because I love seeing them. I also love that documenting their family and little Dylan is so important to them.

I will be honest, I don't get my family pictures taken nearly enough! I always love my images when I get them done, but preparing can often be a struggle. The act of getting them taken can also be total chaos! Last year, my daughter screamed for the ENTIRE session!! I have some tips for a smooth family session with children for you; however you usually need to be prepared for something to go wrong and try to remain calm. First, Try not to let the kids fall asleep in the car. This makes for grouchy smiles and like in my case, a screaming child! When choosing your location, pick somewhere that you don't have to do much off-roading. It's a pain when you're yelling at the kids to get out of the cactus or mud. Make sure the kids are fed before the session and bring a drink and snack to your session just incase. Sometimes we all get hangry! Explain to your children weeks in advance what they will be doing at their session and what you expect of them. Lastly, PRAY! haha. I am not even kidding. I usually pray before every session for a smooth running session and happy memories to be made. I hope those tips are helpful for your family pictures this fall!

One of the hardest parts about planning your family photo shoot is figuring out what to wear! It is definitely not a strong point for me when planning my own family photos because I am not good at fashion at all! My clients always seem to have the outfits figured out and looking the best possible! Here are a few suggestions of what to wear that photograph well.

Accessories

I always recommend accessorising with headbands, bows, and jewelry for the little girls. This adds character to the children and helps show off their cute personalities. Accessories are great for moms as well. Layers photograph really well as well as some darling shoes and jewelry.

Prints

This may not be popular opinion, but I actually really like photographing people in prints! I thought that Natalies shirt looked really great especially at this location. It brought all of the colors together, was feminine and beautiful. I like it when one person is wearing a more busy print and the other outfits are solid. I also like coordinating prints which I will talk about later on in this blog post!

It is usually recommended to wear a solid color outfit, but adding textures or layers. I like that too! Either way, I think it photographs great. If everyone were wearing different prints that didn't coordinate well, thats where I would say to stay away from prints.

Colored Pants

It looks really nice when men wear colored pants, trousers or slacks. Jeans look nice when you are going for a more casual look as well.

Dresses or Skirts

I love when women choose to wear a dress or a skirt. If you choose the right dress, it can be really flattering to any body type.

I love that Lisa is wearing a skirt and also has on a sweater. The layers photograph really well as well as her skirt with a print. I also love when men wear sweaters. It changes things up from the usual button up shirt or t-shirt. I definitely recommend avoiding t-shirts with logos on them.

Adding a Pop of Color

I love a good pop of color! That is a fun way to change up your family pictures from year to year. We took these photos in San Tan Valley and the pop of pink looks really good in this setting. I also love the tonal look with the boys and baby in different shades of blue. Blue is always a good choice!

Coordinating Prints

I definitely couldn't have put together these outfits below and pulled it off! The mama of this family has a way with perfect family picture outfits. I love the different textures, colors, and patterns and also accessories. The girls have on dainty little headbands that aren't to distracting but still add a feminine and pretty touch. The boys have on ties that are different prints and different patterned shirts. I think this is a great idea if you can come up with the right combinations.

Light Colors and Jeans

I love light colors in photos! Creams and Whites photograph really well and look good good on most everyone. I also think wearing jeans in family photos can be really cute! I love how Molly accessorized with a darling belt and dainty necklace. She also tucked her shirt only in the front and it looks really flattering. I also love the simple prints on both of their shirts. Neither of them are distracting.

Formal

It's fun to change things up sometimes and dress more formal! This long dress is really flattering on Jera who is pregnant in this photo. Her daughter looks darling in a long lace dress with fancy sleeves. Wearing formal clothes can photograph really well. The men and boys can wear suits or shirts and ties. I love taking fancy family photos!

These are just some of the options for your next family photo shoot! Most importantly, wear something that makes you feel great. If you are a cowboy and feel great in a hat and wrangles, than wear that! If you feel good in jeans and a cute top, wear that! Be unique to your own family and tell the story of YOU.

Indoor lighting

- Open all of the blinds and turn off the over head light.

Natural light is always the best option! Sometimes the overhead light can cause your picture to look orange or discolored. Also, by opening the windows and bringing in more light, you picture will be better quality.

- Face the natural light. This will allow your subject to be evenly lit and there won't be any funny glows behind your photo

Outdoor lighting

-Lighting is one of the biggest things that is going to help you take better photos on your cell phone. When you are outdoors, look for the best light. If it is a really bright time of day look for some shade. Some examples of shade would be the side of a building, or under a tree. If there is no shade around turn your subject in different directions until the light in the photo looks it's best.

Focus

3. My cell phone camera has a yellow box so that I can choose where to focus. Use this box by clicking where you want the focus to be! This also helps so that your subject is properly exposed. If you have ever played around on your cell phone camera... You can click different areas and it will guess which area to expose for. The sky, the grass, the building, etc.

You can also change the brightness and darkness of the photo by sliding up and down after you click! It is pretty cool! Try it out.

Flattering angles

- When taking portrait style pictures of people, it is most flattering to lift your camera above the subject slightly.

​- Use the rule of thirds. It is aestethicly pleasing to section you photo off into nine parts (three lines horizontally and vertically) and have the important features on one of the intersection points.

Often times we take a photo and the subject is right in the center of our photo. By sectioning the photo off into thirds, the photo becomes more aesthetically pleasing and natural to look at.

I hope these few tips were a little bit helpful to you. Whatever you do, keep taking pictures!

I am new to blogging. Is there such thing as adding too many pictures to a blog post? Okay, fine. I'll just add as many as I want. I know you'll want to see them. Ready, here I go.

We had such a fun time at my Uncle Bryant and Aunt Jodi's session. We had just been at Bear Lake for a few days so we were all a little exhausted and sun burnt. My Aunt Jodi is a champion for getting all of her family so beautiful after a *vacation* at the lake. I say vacation like that because vacations are exhausting! haha It's like wrestling a bag of snakes in an unfamiliar location. Just drop me off with a naked child in the middle of the sandy desert with out my child's bed. At least I had my mini van and baby wipes. I guess that's all you need when you are on vacation these days. Anyway, back to the point!

My sister-in-law had just shared a trick with me that the photographer at her family session used to make the children laugh. I don't know the name of the photographer or I would totally give her credit for her brilliant idea!

All I had to do was jump like a wiggly dolphin and these kids were laughing like crazy. It made for the cutest family picture. The best was when daddy did it. We got the sweetest smiles out my cute cousins! One of the things I love most about my photography career is making people smile in front of the camera. I do have to act like a goof, but it makes me proud to see people with their families happy and smiling. It is very rewarding to be apart of that.

I'm so glad I got to take pictures for multiple family members while I was in Idaho. I seriously have the most gorgeous family. Thanks Bryant and Jodi!

This was my second time using my new 70-200mm lens. Still love it! It is a little more difficult being so far away from the people, but I love the finished products! Any tips on 70-200mm lenses?

My friend Sherri had told me that someone might be texting me about getting pictures done! Thanks Sherri! I was thrilled to meet Dylan! I texted Dylan's mom for a little bit and then she sent me a picture of little Dylan. My mind was blown! He was the cutest little boy EVER!! I immediately committed my daughter to marrying him and THAT was THAT. I am so excited to work with them again. Not only is Dylan cute, he is hilarious.

This session was going to be one hour long and include multiple outfit changes. As soon as I got his first smile, we changed his outfit. I wanted to get a happy face in all of the outfits. I didn't want to get all of the smiles in just one outfit and tucker him out too soon. I felt my strategy worked pretty well! His pictures turned out adorable, and his parents were thrilled with the finished product. I almost took him home with me, too. It was a great day to be a photographer, that's for sure.

"I was blown away by how great Nicole was with my son. Having only ever taken pictures in a studio, I was not sure what to expect or how my son would act. Nicole was excellent and captured him perfectly. The images were great and more than I ever expected them to be. I can't wait until the holidays this year and my son's next birthday. Anyone looking for a great photographer, look no more!" - Stacey Fullmer ​

I'm happy to be celebrating this country with my family and enjoying these fun traditions this Fourth of July weekend!

Earlier this week, Dawson was being really whiny. To get him to stop crying, I asked him if he wanted to see his friend Emmett. Of course he did! We weren't able to see Emmett that day, but he never stopped talking about it. He wanted to have a party! On Saturday I had to drop by Molly's house to grab something. Emmett wanted to see Dawson and Linden just as bad. That night we invited them over to play games.They brought sparklers, and we whipped out our left over fireworks from last year. (Blake and I bought tons of fireworks last year with out communicating, haha)We were giggling because Emmett was scared of the fire. He has been told his whole life not to touch the hot fire then this one particular day he is supposed to get really close to it and all of a sudden it's supposed to be fun! Parenting is ridiculous, haha.

I have a free minute so I would like to share some tips with you of how to get images in low light with out using your flash on your DSLR camera.

Set your camera on manual mode or "M." Make sure the flash doesn't pop up.Set your ISO to 1600 or greater. Mine was set to 4000-6400 in these photos because it was very dark. My only light source was the fire works. Your DSLR camera may not go past 3200, but check it out and see what your camera will do!

Since it was so dark I had my shutter speed on 1/80 or 1/60. That isn't ideal when taking pictures of children because you could possibly photograph some motion, but it seemed to turn out okay!

The aperture was on F1.8. I was shooting with a 50mm lens. You may not have a lens with an aperture that opens that much. Just try to get the *f* number as low as you can.

Now, if you want to take pictures writing with fire, that is a different story! You will need to get out your tripod, and set your shutter speed very slow!

I challenge you to get your DSLR out while you're shooting off fireworks! Capture some neat pictures of your sweet family this fourth of July.

Author

Hi there. I'm Nicole. I'm a small town girl from Idaho who loves photography, my Savior and my family. You'll find me in the mountains with my camera around my neck begging my husband, "lets just take one more picture of your S'more." I love to blog about my photography sessions, family life and much more! Come read along.